A Visual Reading Guide

RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA

Racial Violence After the Civil War 1865-1876

1860 1865 1870 1875 1 · Better understand the history of violent How to use this Guide resistance to Black equality in this country, EJI’s Reconstruction in America report provides Reject the false myths of Black inferiority context and analysis for a dark period in American · and dangerousness that were used to justify history, one that has been erased from public that resistance, and memory and that may be difficult to process. This visual reading guide is designed to help Identify the ways that public and private CONTENTS readers engage with the report. It aims to prompt · actors expressed their belief in meaningful reflection and discussion about the supremacy and sought to embed that missed opportunity of Reconstruction and how ideology in local, state, and federal laws. the violent rejection of Black equality set the stage for generations of terror and inequality In addition to this guide, on EJI’s website you in the South and throughout the country. can find a data visualization map showing the spread of racial violence during Reconstruction The guide is divided into seven sections, each and a video animation of the Reconstruction in INTRODUCTION 2 including discussion questions, summaries of America report. key information, and a timeline of events. While reading, reflect on the discussion questions for JOURNEY TO FREEDOM 4 that chapter of the report. After reading, use the Learn More Emancipation and Citizenship information and timeline in this guide to review what you have learned. Then, you should be The Reconstruction in America report is one able to meaningfully discuss the guided reading in a series of EJI reports about the history FREEDOM TO FEAR 8 questions, in conversation with others or through and legacies of racial injustice in the United A Terrifying and Deadly Backlash self-reflection. States. If the discussions that emerge from this guide leave you with more questions about It is our hope that through conversations about this history and its legacies, please consider DOCUMENTING RECONSTRUCTION 12 racial , the complicity of public officials visiting eji.org/reports to read the other reports and law enforcement, and the false myth of racial in the series. VIOLENCE hierarchy, readers will: Known and Unknown Horrors

THE DANGER OF FREEDOM 16

White people trafficked first Africans to the RECONSTRUCTION’S END 20 Americas through the Transatlantic Slave Trade A TRUTH THAT NEEDS TELLING 24 1619

1590 1600 1610 1620 INTRODUCTION 3 Guided Reading Questions: Consider the following questions as you read the Introduction. Come back to them after reading.

· What similarities do you notice between the desires of newly emancipated people during Reconstruction and the desires of Black today? What similarities or differences do you INTRODUCTION notice in the response to those desires in your local community, your state, and ?

Definitions recreation that followed the Civil War. Black disenfrachisement During the 12-year period of Reconstruction, During Reconstruction, the federal This is the practice of preventing Black 80% government provided oversight to enforce people from exercising their constitutional ’s new rights of freedom and at least 2,000 Black women, men, and children were The percentage of eligible Black voters right to vote. Throughout Reconstruction, citizenship and to establish new state victims of racial terror . who were registered to vote by 1868. intimidation, violence, and lawlessness governments. were used to keep Black people from Emancipation vs. equality voting, to Black elected officials, Supreme Court During Reconstruction, white people and to overthrow duly elected public During Reconstruction, the Supreme used violent resistance to ensure that officials who supported Black equality. Court used its power to stop Congress emancipation—the end of many Black Our collective ignorance of what happened from protecting Black people’s rights. people’s status as enslaved—did not By blocking Congress’ efforts, the Court immediately after the Civil War has contributed to result in equality—equal access to the This is a belief system that white people allowed the same who misinformed stereotypes and misguided false rights of citizens. are inherently superior to Black people had fought the Civil War to keep Black and all people of color. It is myth that narratives about who is honorable and who is 1865-1876 people enslaved to maintain control of was created to justify the kidnap, human state and local governments. not and has allowed bigotry and a legacy of racial This is the period of Reconstruction, trafficking, and enslavement of Africans. the period of legal, political, and social injustice to persist.

1630 1640 1650 1660 1670 1680 1690 1700 1710 JOURNEY TO FREEDOM 5 Guided Reading Questions: Consider the following questions as you read the section Journey to Freedom. Come back to them after reading. JOURNEY · What did enslaved Black people hope a Union victory would TO FREEDOM mean for their lives? · After the Confederate surrender, a newspaper editorial wrote Emancipation and Citizenship that, “ is dead. The Negro is not; there is our misfortune.” In what ways does this section help you understand why ending enslavement did not end the devastating effects of racial hierarchy for Black people?

Not a single Southern legislature believed labor was possible without a system of “ them to be exploited economically through Carolina seceded, its state legislators restrictions that took all its freedoms away; there Definitions violent means. In the United States, a child wrote that a primary catalyst for their was scarcely a white man in the South who did not Transatlantic Slave Trade born to an enslaved Black person was action was “[a]n increasing hostility on the automatically declared to be enslaved. This part of the non-slaveholding States to the The Transatlantic Slave Trade was the honestly regard Emancipation as a crime, and its custom created a racial hierarchy that was institution of slavery.” The of of Africans from the hereditary and permanent. these 11 states began the Civil War. practical nullification as a duty. continent of Africa to North America, , or . Emancipation Proclamation —Sociologist W.E.B. DuBois Over 10 million African men, women, and children were kidnapped and sold The Domestic Slave Trade emerged after Issued by President into captivity through this trade, and an the Transatlantic Slave Trade was legally in September 1862, the Emancipation additional 2 million African men, women, banned in 1808 to meet the ongoing Proclamation declared the freedom of and children died during the brutal demand for enslaved Black people. Millions Black people enslaved in the Confederacy. voyage. This trade ended in 1808, but of Black people, including free Black people It did not free enslaved people in the Many of the day’s most pressing questions asked: the enslavement of Black people in the who were illegally sold into captivity, were border states of , West , what would happen to the entrenched institution United States did not end. It grew. trafficked through the Domestic Slave Trade. , and and exempted and parts of Virginia and of slavery? And what fate would befall the millions Chattel slavery Secession . People across the country— of Black people who had been enslaved at the A unique system of enslavement that Beginning with , 11 Southern in the South and the North—protested permanently took away legal rights and states left the United States because they the Order. war’s start? autonomy from the enslaved and allowed wanted to maintain slavery. When South

1720 1730 1740 1750 1760 1770 1780 1790 6 RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA JOURNEY TO FREEDOM 7

13th Amendment 15th Amendment People Red dates identify an The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, The 15th Amendment prohibits racial TIMELINE | 1619–1870 act of racial violence except as punishment for a crime. It passed discrimination in voting, granting voting Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe both houses of Congress by January rights to men of all races. It became part A white abolitionist who, like many white MARCH 10, Confederate soldiers hanged Amy Spain, 1865, but could not become part of the of the Constitution in February 1870. people who supported a legal end to 1619 White people trafficked first Africans to a Black woman, for helping the Constitution until 75% of the states voted slavery, did not believe in racial equality and the Americas through the Transatlantic 1865 for it, including the states in the South who 25% believed that Black people were naturally Slave Trade were fighting a war to maintain slavery. It The percentage of delegates to state inferior to white people. In his efforts to draw APRIL 9, Confederate Army surrenders and the was ratified in December 1865 after federal constitutional conventions in the former support for ending slavery, he argued that 1808 Transatlantic Slave Trade becomes illegal 1865 Civil War ends laws required former Confederate states Confederate states who were Black men. without slavery Black people would die out. but Domestic Slave Trade remains lawful to adopt the 13th Amendment in order to Eligible to participate in politics for the first and very profitable for white people DECEMBER 13th Amendment is added to the officially rejoin the country. time in the country’s history, Black men Stephen A. Hale throughout the country 1865 Constitution were the majority of delegates in South A proslavery public official in , Carolina, more than half in Louisiana, and Hale wrote to the in 1860 warning 11 southern states secede from the Union President vetoes the Civil This federal law declared that Black more than a third in . 1861 1866 about the dangers of equality for Black and the Civil War begins Rights Act of 1866 and Congress overrides Americans were citizens of the United people. He was concerned that white his veto to make the bill became federal law States entitled to equal rights. President children would have to associate with Black SEPTEMBER President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Andrew Johnson vetoed it because he Events people “upon terms of political and social 1862 Proclamation by executive order JULY 14th Amendment is added to the did not believe Black people should have Fort Pillow Massacre equality.” Hale went on to represent South equal rights when “intelligent, worthy Carolina in the Confederate Congress. 1868 Constitution Against the rules of war, Confederate and patriotic” foreigners did not. In April 262 Black Union soldiers murdered by soldiers murdered 262 Black soldiers in 1864 1866, Congress overrode a veto for the Confederate soldiers in the Fort Pillow FEBRUARY the Union Army who had surrendered. 15th Amendment is added to the first time in the nation’s history, and this Massacre This was one of many acts by Confederate Elected governor or New in the 1862 1870 Constitution bill became law. soldiers to show their refusal to acknowl- election cycle. Seymour ran for governor edge the humanity of Black people. as the pro-slavery “white man’s candidate” 1865 Local newspapers in Alabama continued 14th Amendment who was opposed to emancipation for to advertise sales of enslaved people and The 14th Amendment declared that Amy Spain Hanged Black people. to publish ads for “runaways” in defiance Black people are citizens of the United of the Emancipation Proclamation In defiance of the Emancipation States and established the civil rights of President Andrew Johnson Local newspapers in Proclamation which had gone into effect Alabama continued to advertise all citizens. President Andrew Johnson President Johnson was known to some two years earlier, Confederate soldiers sales of enslaved people opposed this amendment becoming as “a champion of the white South.” hanged a young Black woman named and to publish ads for “runaways” part of the Constitution, empowering Amy Spain on March 10, 1865 for He opposed the 13th Amendment, in defiance of the other elected officials to publicly oppose “treason and conduct unbecoming a the 14th Amendment, and strict Emancipation Proclamation it, too. 10 of the 11 former Confederate slave” because she aided Union troops. requirements for former Confederate 1865 states rejected it. Congress had to impose states to re-enter the country. military rule on the South and require Confederate Surrender Day former Confederate states to ratify the Fort Pillow Massacre: On April 9, 1865, the Confederate Army 14th Amendment to get enough state 262 Black Union surrendered and the Civil War ended with votes to add the 14th Amendment to soldiers murdered by 14th a Union victory on the battlefield. Confederate soldiers the Constitution. Amendment 1864 JULY 1868 13th Amendment DECEMBER 15th Transatlantic Slave 1865 Amendment Civil War begins Trade becomes illegal FEBRUARY 1861 and Domestic Slave Confederate 1870 Trade emerges Army surrenders 1808 APRIL 9, 1865

1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 Civil Rights Act of 1866 The Emancipation Confederate 1866 Proclamation issued soldiers hang SEPTEMBER Amy Spain 1862 MARCH 10, 1865 FREEDOM TO FEAR 9 Guided Reading Questions: Consider the following questions as you read the section Freedom to Fear. Come back to them after reading. FREEDOM · During Reconstruction, 2,000 Black men served in political office, TO FEAR and white people murdered at least that many Black people in racial terror lynchings. Why did white communities respond to a period of heightened Black political participation with heightened A Terrifying and Deadly Backlash violence against Black men, women, and children?

· After the Civil War, white Southerners could no longer extract Black labor through enslavement and sought to "obtain their labor by some other method." What methods were used to continue to exploit Black labor after Emancipation? The “wave of counter-revolutionary terror “ that swept over large parts of the South between 1868 and 1871 lacks counterpart...”

—Historian throughout the country. Whitecaps viewed Howard University and Fisk Definitions as economic competition University Organized aggression and demanded that Black people abandon Two of the nation’s first Black colleges their land and give up their jobs. A tactic of lawless mass murder, often in opened in the years after Emancipation. the dark of night, used by white people to In his 1867 annual message to Congress, Equal Rights Leagues resist Black equality. This tactic was used Violence against Black schools President Andrew Johnson declared that Black often by the . Organizations formed by Black people and educators Americans had “less capacity for government throughout the South to protest discrimi- White communities targeted Black Ku Klux Klan natory treatment and ensure that Black education for violent retaliation. In 1870, people had access to their new legal and than any other race of people,” that they would An arm of white supremacist organizing white mobs in Tuskegee, Alabama burned political rights. In 1867, their efforts helped that functions like a terrorist cell. The Ku almost every school there, and a white mob “relapse into barbarism” if left to their own devices, to register 80% of eligible Black voters in 10 Klux Klan was created to terrorize Black in Calhoun , Alabama lynched four of the 11 former Confederate states. and that giving them voting rights would result people through violence and murder Black men and murdered a white targeted at those who supported Black man in response to the growth of a local in “a tyranny such as this continent has never 2,000 civil rights. It used the same tactics as . yet witnessed.” other white supremacist organizations, like The estimated number of Black men who the Knights of the White Camelia and the served in elected office in the 12-year Black land ownership Pale Faces. Members of this organization period of Reconstruction, including 16 For centuries, African American agricul- were called Klansmen. White elected in the U.S Congress and 600 in state tural labor enriched white Southerners officials and police officers were often legislatures. and the national economy. Black people members of the Klan. hoped emancipation would come with land 5% ownership. President Andrew Johnson Whitecaps The percentage of enslaved people who rescinded orders from Union army officials Mobs of poor, white farmers who led a learned to read and write by 1863 despite that had granted land to Black people. white terrorist campaign that began in state laws that prohibited it and the violent Instead, the President ordered that land before spreading to Missouri and retaliation of white people who discovered given to former Confederates. their ability to read and write. 10 RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA FREEDOM TO FEAR 11 South Carolina. Because he organized a People A new labor system that replaced slavery coalition to protect Black people’s freedom, TIMELINE | 1860–18 75 as the primary source of agricultural Klansmen lynched him, attacked other York County KKK Black residents, and burned down Black labor and Black exploitation in the South. By 1871 nearly every white male resident people’s homes. Members of the mob SUMMER Police and neighbors in Duplin County, FEBRUARY 25, Senator Hiram Revels takes office as Formerly enslaved people performed the of York County, South Carolina was a were taken to trial, during which at least murder six Black men the first Black U.S. Congressman same farming labor as during slavery in Klansmen. That same year, there were 1865 1870 one person confessed to the murder. Still, exchange for housing, often on the same at least 11 and 600 whippings no one was found guilty for Mr. Williams’ and working for the family that and assaults of Black residents. Federal , Ku Klux Klan formed in Pulaski, Tennessee AUGUST White men lynch Black state legislator murder. had previously legally owned them. law enforcement called the violence 1865 1870 Burke a “carnival of crime not paralleled in the Black Political Organizers JULY 30, Massacre (at least 200 victims) 1% history of any civilized community.” The Lynched 1866 1871 Klansmen in York County, South Carolina The percentage of the more than 3 million white people who committed the violence murder 11 and assault more than African Americans in the South who owned William Glasgow was an African American were not held accountable by the local SEPTEMBER 5, Klansmen in Warren, Kentucky lynch 600 African Americans land by 1870. former Union soldier who pledged to vote criminal justice system. in favor of Black rights in the upcoming 1868 William Glasgow and another African American Union veteran Rep. elected to the election. As a result, Klansmen in Warren, Hiram Revels 1874 Kentucky lynched him in his home and U.S. House of Representatives to represent A new source of labor created through the Senator Hiram Revels, a formerly enslaved then went to a nearby house and lynched SEPTEMBER Beaufort, South Carolina criminal law. Southern states made certain man, was elected to represent White mob kills 7 and injures 30 African another Black Union veteran. A few months behavior criminal only when done by in 1870, making him the first African 1868 Americans in Camilla, GA massacre later, white mobs lynched John Kemp, an NOVEMBER African Americans. They used those laws American to serve in the U.S. Congress. He Armed white men in Eufaula, Alabama active political organizer, in St. Helena to imprison and re-enslave Black people was often introduced to audiences as the OCTOBER White mob kills 14 Black people in 1874 attack Black voters on Election Day, Parish, Louisiana and Samson Weaver, the using a loophole in the 13th Amendment. “Fifteenth Amendment in flesh and blood.” 1868 New Orleans Massacre on Canal Street murdering at least 6 people 13-year-old son of a prominent African That Amendment allows involuntary American in Columbia, Florida. Samson’s servitude for prisoners, enabling states Robert Smalls father, Prince Weaver, had to flee town for NOVEMBER Police kill 3 and injure at least 20 at a to force incarcerated people to work for Representative Robert Smalls, a formerly his safety. 1868 Savannah, GA polling location on Election Day Police kill 3 and private industries for no pay under brutal enslaved man and one of the first African injure at least 20 at a White men lynch conditions. The system has been called American pilots in the U.S. Navy, served Black state legislator Robert Burke Murdered , Klansmen in brutally attack Savannah, GA polling “worse than slavery” by historians. in the U.S. House of Representative to location on Election Day Robert Burke Mr. Burke was a state legislator in Sumter Congressman Abram Colby represent Beaufort, South Carolina. As 1869 AUGUST 1870 County, Alabama. When he organized a NOVEMBER a Congressman, he fought against racial 1868 Klansmen in Events meeting of local African Americans, white segregation. 1870 Klansmen in Chattanooga, Tennessee brutally Klansmen in York County, SC men shot and killed him near his home. whip elected official Andrew Flowers Georgia brutally murder 11 and New Orleans Massacre White mob kills John W. Fields attack Congressman assault more Local Black men marched in support of Police and neighbors 14 Black people in Camilla, Georgia Massacre Abram Colby than 600 African the new state constitution that would A formerly enslaved African American who in Duplin County, NC New Orleans Massacre In September 1868, the sheriff of Camilla, OCTOBER 29, Americans recognize Black rights. In response, a remembered the many ways enslaved Black murder six Black men on Canal Street GA refused to protect two Black politicians, people used to learn to read and write. 1869 1871 mob of white police officers and white Colonel Pearce and Captain Murphy, who SUMMER 1865 OCTOBER 1868 residents formed and murdered and By the Civil War, nearly every Southern were threatened with violence if they state banned Black and the wounded at least 200 Black people. Klansmen in accepted an invitation to speak at a public possession of learning materials as a means Ku Klux Klan Klansmen in Warren, Armed white men formed in Pulaski, Kentucky lynch William Chattanooga, TN in Eufaula, AL attack Black event. Pearce and Murphy refused to be of maintaining white racial dominance. Abram Colby Attacked Tennessee Glasgow and another brutally whip elected voters on Election Day, intimidated and attended the public event. Some made it punishable by death. Mr. Colby, a formerly enslaved A white mob attacked them in a massacre, DECEMBER 24, African American official Andrew Flowers murdering at least 6 people African American, was a duly elected killing 7 Black people and wounding at Fort Pillow 1865 Union veteran 1870 NOVEMBER Congressman. His election was due to the least 30 others. Massacre SEPTEMBER 5, 1874 votes of newly enfranchised Black men. 1864 New Orleans Massacre 1868 Because he was a Black elected official, Election Day in Savannah, GA (at least 200 victims) Senator Hiram Revels the Ku Klux Klan brutally attacked and takes office as the On election day in November 1868, Black JULY 30, White mob kills 7 and first Black U.S. Rep. Robert Smalls whipped him for more than three hours. men waiting in line to vote were accused of Amy Spain 1866 injures 30 African Americans Congressman elected to the U.S. blocking the door. Police responded, firing is hanged in Camilla, GA massacre Andrew Flowers Whipped FEBRUARY 25, House of Representatives into the crowd and killing Sam Parsons, MARCH 10, SEPTEMBER 1870 to represent Beaufort, SC Mr. Flowers was a Black man who defeated Peter Hopkins, and a third victim whose 1865 1868 1874 a white candidate to become the justice name is unknown. of the peace in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Because he won, Klansmen whipped him Duplin County, North Carolina and told him “they did not intend any Lynchings Emancipation nigger to hold office in the United States.” When six Black men tried to enforce their 1860 1865 Civil Rights 1870 1875 Proclamation issued Act sharecropping agreement with the white 15th James Williams Lynched SEPTEMBER 1866 land-owner, police officers joined armed Confederate Army Amendment 1862 13th Mr. Williams was a formerly enslaved surrenders 14th white neighbors and murdered the six Civil War begins FEBRUARY Black man who lived in York County, Amendment Amendment Black men. APRIL 9, 1870 1861 DECEMBER 1865 JULY 1868 1865 DOCUMENTING RECONSTRUCTION VIOLENCE 13 There is a lack of public memory about what is known The Freedmen’s Bureau The Freedmen’s Bureau was a federal effort to of Reconstruction-era violence provide formerly enslaved people with basic necessities and to ensure their rights. Though and a lack of documentation understaffed and under constant political attack that limits what can be known. by political opponents, local Bureau offices served as central community locations to report and This erasure is possible because documents violence against Black people, to register DOCUMENTING Black people to vote, to verify labor contracts of white intimidation of Black between the formerly enslaved and their employers, victims and witnesses; refusal to provide food and medical care, to establish schools, RECONSTRUCTION and to perform marriages. White Southerners often of Southern newspapers to disregarded the authority of the Freedmen’s Bureau, VIOLENCE and this disregard made local Bureau offices targets document violence against of racist violence. And in 1872, at the height of deadly Black people; and failure today violence against Black people, Congress dismantled the Bureau. Today the Bureau’s records provide some Known and Unknown Horrors to make existing records readily of the most detailed descriptions of Reconstruction. available to the public.

Nor could any accurate body count or statistical “ breakdown reveal the barbarity and depravity that TIMELINE so frequently characterized the assaults made on freedmen in the [purported] name of restraining Racial Terror MARCH their savagery and depravity...” 1863 Fort Pillow Massacre —Historian Leon F. Litwack and Reconstruction 1864 Wisconsin New York State Snapshot 1861 1863 During Reconstruction, there were 37 states. There was documented racial terrorism against Black people in at least 26 of them. This includes all 11 of the former Confederate 1860 states, where the vast majority of Emancipation Proclamation issued African Americans lived. SEPTEMBER Civil War begins 1862 1861 14 RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA DOCUMENTING RECONSTRUCTION VIOLENCE 15 In 1862, New York voters elected Governor Horatio Seymour, a strong supporter of Southern slavery.167 A year later, a mob of up to 3,000 people lynched a Black man named Robert Mulliner in Newburgh.168 Weeks later, white mobs resentful March 1863: White mobs in of the Union draft VT waged violent attacks attacked and on the Black community, killed dozens of NH MINNESOTA killing at least one Black people in WISCONSIN Black man and leaving the 1861: George Marshall Clark, hundreds of Black Draft .169 OREGON a young Black man, was people homeless.163 MA lynched in Milwaukee after 1866: John Taylor NEW YORK was lynched.164 he and another Black man CT RI UNITED were accused of getting into a drunken fight with three white MICHIGAN men who were NJ 1867: Black Union Army also intoxicated. 1871: White mobs in veteran William “Obie” STATES OF terrorized Black communities Evans is lynched after being on election day, killing at least accused of burning down a 175 white man’s barn. 153 three Black men. 1874: IOWA February 1874: INDIANA Albert Brown was Charles Wyatt 1871: George 1876: A mob of 50 lynched.176 MARYLAND white men lynched a deemed “suspicious” Johnston, The site of violent and some- NEBRASKA Black man identified only AMERICA for spending a $20 Squire Taylor, WEST times deadly racial terror during by the name “Ulrey” in bill was arrested for and a man Reconstruction. In Harford County NEVADA Urbana, Champaign VIRGINIA robbing and killing a identified by the a Black man named Isaac Moore County.172 1874: A mob white woman. A lynch surname Davis was lynched in 1868 and a of 20 white men MISSOURI mob of over 400 were wrongly Black man named Jim Quinn abducted and 1865–1876 Many Black people white men seized accused of VIRGINIA was lynched in 1869.162 lynched John KANSAS were lynched in Charles Wyatt murder, and KENTUCKY Missouri during the from jail, and lynched.157 Racial violence in Taliaferro. 1869: a mob of white men 1869: Luke Barnes, James Ponder, and , hanged him at least 37 counties. abducted two Black men from jail CALIFORNIA Lee Watkins were arrested and accused of including George Bryan without Election day, 1870: one and hanged them without trial.181 killing a white man in Ellis County. Before (Livingston County) in 1873; trial.156 white man and four Black people There are more than 120 incidents they could be tried or defended, a white Edmund Moore (Charleston were killed, 15 to 20 Black people of Reconstruction-era racial mob seized the men from jail and hanged NORTH County) in 1875; and Raphael were wounded.160 violence in 40 Virginia counties. them.159 Williams (Platte County) in TENNESSEE CAROLINA 166 1876. At least 200 incidents of racial The Ku Klux Klan and other white terrorism took place in Tennessee, mobs exacted assaults and murder at the including a massacre in 1866 and slightest allegation during this era. 1869: a mass in 1869. After a disagreement between SOUTH A young Black man named Wright Woods former Confederate soldiers was accused of expressing interest in a young GEORGIA CAROLINA and emancipated Black ALABAMA white woman, four white men abducted Mr. South Carolina people living in a refugee Georgia was the Woods from work. After nearly a week a neighbor Nearly 200 camp, 24 Black men, site of extensive found vultures surrounding his hanging corpse.170 Reconstruction-era Abbeville County: New Orleans women, and children racial violence during victims of Alabama 77 acts of racial violence Massacre were found dead, Reconstruction More racial violence have than 300 acts of murder Racial violence by the Klan and other white mobs grew hanging from so widespread and deadly during Reconstruction that it Tennessee against Black people on Canal Street 151 been documented by and other attacks, Klansmen trees. attracted federal investigation, led to passage of the 1871 within seven months EJI. Perpetrators and including the November Memphis Massacre OCTOBER MISSISSIPPI supporters were never 1868 massacre of Perry , and caused President to declare in Georgia brutally Lynchings and other violence documented in Texas during 178 prosecuted. Some later that year. Freedmen’s Bureau records 1866 1868 1868 the Reconstruction era span more than 45 counties and Jeffreys, his wife, and attack Abram Colby went on to hold 155 document 77 acts of racial violence against Black people include a deadly massacre in the Brazos County community four sons. elected office.150 within seven months in 1868—that amounts to a whipping, Police and OCTOBER 29, of Millican in 1868. That July, after a local Black preacher rape, shooting, or lynching once every three days. neighbors in Duplin 1869 White men lynch began organizing Millican’s Black community to defend itself against the growing threat of Klan violence, Klansmen fired on Arkansas Klansmen in Warren, KY Georgia Many Black men killed in Reconstruction violence Black state legislator a group of Black people investigating a rumored lynching. County, NC murder LOUISIANA were targeted for exercising their political rights. MARCH lynch William Glasgow NOVEMBER Over the next two days, hundreds of white men from neighboring Robert Burke Klansmen in In Columbia County in 1869, a politically active six Black men towns terrorized the local Black community and dozens more During Reconstruction, 1866 and another African 1868 Virginia Black man named Lisher Johnson was abducted AUGUST 1870 York County, SC Black victims were killed. Scholars today estimate Black people in Mississippi SUMMER 1865 by a white mob and never seen again. The next American Union veteran 1869 150 Black people were killed but the exact were the targets of repeated Kentucky murder 11 and assault year in the same county, another Black man Michigan death toll remains unknown.180 massacres, including in FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 5, 1868 1870 Klansmen in more than 600 Repeated massacres occured in places like Colfax, Vicksburg in December 1874, named Robert Jones was shot and killed Delaware in his home after a white man threatened 1866 Florida African Americans Opelousas, New Orleans, St. Bernard Parish, Orleans where white mobs attacked 1867 North Chattanooga, TN Parish, and West Feliciana Parish. Hundreds of Black people and killed at least 50 Black him for voting for pro-Reconstruction Illinois 154 Amy Spain 1869 Carolina brutally whip 1871 Missouri were killed and countless more traumatized in order to suppress citizens who had organized to candidates. Texas 161 is hanged 1873 1874 Black voting rights. EJI has documented more than 1,000 lynchings protest the removal of their elected 1869 Andrew Flowers 165 Wisconsin Massacrein the West and other incidents of racial violence in Louisiana during the 12-year Black sheriff, Mr. Peter Crosby. MARCH 10, 1870 At least Reconstruction period; this exceeds the number of racial terror lynchings 1866 Brazos County Virginia documented in the state during the 80-year period that followed 1865 Florida Pennsylvania community of Millican Kansas 2,000 1876 Reconstruction. New Orleans 1870 1874 JULY 1868 1869 Pennsylvania Black victims Massacre (at least Ohio Tennessee 1871 1865–1876 Mississippi Missouri 200 victims) Indiana 1875 1876 Missouri MAY 1, 1865 Maryland Maryland Tennessee DECEMBER JULY 30, 1866 1871 1876 1868 1869 1869 1874

1865 13th 1870 Senator Hiram 1875 1880 Civil 14th Amendment Revels takes office Rep. Robert Smalls Armed white men Rights Act Amendment Police kill 3 and elected to the U.S. At least DECEMBER FEBRUARY 25, in Eufaula, AL attack 1866 JULY 1868 Confederate 1865 injure at least 20 House of Representatives Black voters on 4,400 Camilla, GA 15th 1870 Army surrenders Ku Klux Klan at a Savannah, GA to represent Election Day, murdering Black victims massacre Amendment APRIL 9, formed in Pulaski, TN polling location Beaufort, SC at least 6 people 1877–1950 SEPTEMBER FEBRUARY 1870 1865 DECEMBER 24, on Election Day 1874 NOVEMBER 1874 1865 1868 NOVEMBER 1868 THE DANGER OF FREEDOM 17 Guided Reading Questions: Consider the following questions as you read the section The Danger of Freedom. Come back to them after reading.

· What actions by white community members, public officials, and THE DANGER OF journalists created the false stereotype of innate Black criminality FREEDOM and a presumption of Black guilt? · What was the goal of the domestic terrorism that Black men, women, and children experienced during Reconstruction?

For all that we can never know about the countless preferably by burning. This book espoused included beating a Black man named undocumented acts of violence and unknown Definitions widely held beliefs about the necessity of Wesley Givens and threatening to lynch him victims, the narratives we do know illustrate the Economic exploitation lynching to maintaining . if he did not leave town within eight days. After Emancipation, there was white suffering and survival of a people who had already Election Day in Philadelphia resistance to the rights of Black people to Events endured so much. choose where to live and when and where Despite violent threats from white police to work. This resistance was often violent. Guilford Coleman Lynched officers and mobs in the days before King Davis, a formerly enslaved man was the election, many Black men exercised Mr. Coleman was a Black delegate to the killed for trying to leave the land where their constitutional right to vote anyway. Alabama state convention. Because he he had been enslaved. Stephen Bryant, a On Election Day, a white man murdered was a political leader advocating for Black formerly enslaved man, was handcuffed Octavius Catto, an African American [There exists] a desire to preserve slavery in its rights, he was beaten and dumped into and beaten by a white farmer for leaving the activist and Union veteran, who was on a well. original form as much and as long as possible... plantation without the farmer’s permission. his way home after voting. The killer was later acquitted by an all-white jury. At least “ Jack Dupree Lynched The [white] people...still indulged in a lingering Racial social boundaries two other Black men Isaac Chase and Mr. Dupree was the well-respected Black hope that slavery might yet be preserved….A large After the Civil War, white people used Jacob Gordon, were killed in acts of voter president of a local political club in suppression. proportion of the many acts of violence committed violence to maintain the social etiquette of Monroe County, Mississippi. Because of slavery. Black people could be attacked or is undoubtedly attributable to this motive. his political involvement, 60 Klansmen Ed and Jinny Scott Attacked killed for violating any social rule as defined beat him, slit his throat, and cut out his A white man hit Jinny Scott in anger that by any white person at any time. This intestines before throwing his body into she, her husband, and the Black couple —Carl Shurz in a report to the U.S. Congress included not stepping off the sidewalk for a a creek. white person or arguing with a white person. they were with did not step off the sidewalk for two white men. Her husband, Ed Scott, Joe Cody Attacked Massacres came to her defense. In response, a white Mr. Cody was an African American mob seized and tortured him. It is unclear White resentment to Black equality often resident of Warren County, Georgia. if Jinny Scott ever saw her husband again. erupted into lawless bloodbaths that left During the 1868 election, white residents many Black people dead and injured demanded that he vote for the pro-white Sexual Assault of Rhoda Ann and destroyed Black property. This mass supremacy candidate. Because Mr. Cody Childs violence was treated with impunity and refused, a white mob kidnapped and Eight white planters came to Mrs. Childs intentionally mislabeled as riots even whipped him and pulled out his hair. though mutual combat was rare. home looking for her husband. Finding her alone, they kidnapped, beat, and sexually Racial terror in Lewisburg, assaulted her. The mob then returned to The Truth About Lynching and Tennessee the Negro in the South her home and attacked her daughters. In January 1868, a mob of 25 white A book published in 1919 advocating men terrorized the Black community to for the periodic lynching of Black men, intimidate Black voters. This terrorism 18 RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA THE DANGER OF FREEDOM 19 TIMELINE | 1860–1875 Sexual Violence Against Black Women Anti-Black sentiment outside the South In addition to the shared threat of lynching for all Black People in the North worried that Emancipation would MARCH White men in Unionville, South Carolina 1868 White mobs in Abbeville attack and injure people, Black women were more likely to suffer sexual bring a wave of Black people to their states. Iowa, Illinois, 1865 lynch Saxe Joiner African Americans to intimidate them from voting violence as a form of racial dominance. Southern state and Oregon took steps to outlaw Black migration into the legislatures passed laws that treated sexual assault of Black state. Black people in the North endured random acts of 1866 200 white men in New York City lynch a JANUARY White men in Lewisburg, Tennessee violently Black teenager named John Taylor terrorize the local Black community women differently than that of white women, and law violence, including more than 100 murders by white mobs in 1868 enforcement would refuse to carry out arrest warrants for New York City in July 1863; a presumption of guilt when a MAY White mob seizes Tom Conyers on his way FEBRUARY Motivated by President Andrew Johnson’s white men accused of raping Black women. crime was discovered; and retaliation against Black men for 1866 to court and hangs him 1868 opposition to rights for Black people, the exercising their constitutional right to vote. House of Representatives issues articles of MAY 1-3, White mob kills at least 46 African Americans impeachment against him Opelousas, Louisiana 1866 in Memphis Massacre There were hundreds of racial terror lynchings in Louisiana Memphis Massacre FALL White men massacre over 200 in Opelousas, Louisiana to suppress Black voters during Reconstruction. The deadliest took place in Over three days in May 1866, white mobs beat, robbed, SEPTEMBER 8 white men sexually assault Rhoda Ann Childs 1868 Opelousas as a form of voter suppression leading up to the tortured, shot, raped, and killed Black men, women, and 1866 White mob in Orange County, North Carolina 1868 election. White mobs murdered more than 200 Black children at random. Black homes, churches, and schools 1867 White lynch mob in Georgetown, 1869 hangs Edward Bainbridge hangs Cyrus Guy people and several white people who were sympathetic to were burned down. Local police officers joined the

Black rights. The mob also destroyed the printing presses of violence as “murderers, incendiaries, and robbers...they SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER A white man assaults Hill because Armed white men in Robinson Spring, Florida the one local newspaper that was pro-Reconstruction, and even protected the rest of the mob in their acts of violence.” 1867 Mr. Hill insisted on being paid for his work 1869 attack Black people having a picnic killed the white male editor of the paper. No white people were ever held accountable. Guilford Coleman lynched in Alabama 1868 Joe Cody lynched in Warren County, GA 1870 for voting for political leadership

200 white men White mobs in White men lynch Jack Dupree lynched in Monroe County, in New York City lynch Abbeville attack White men in Lewisburg, Over 200 Black state legislator 1871 Mississippi for political activity Sexual Assault of Harriet Simril Robinson Spring, Florida a Black teenager and injure TN violently terrorize local massacred in Robert Burke Black community Opelousas, LA to Three white men in Columbia, South Armed white men opened fire on a group of named John Taylor African Americans AUGUST 1870 JANUARY 1868 suppress Black voters Carolina raped Harriet Simril because 26 Black men, women, and children who were 1866 8 white men 1868 3 white men sexually assault Harriet Simril FALL 1868 1871 her husband did not vote for white having a picnic. A man and a 2-year-old child sexually assault Klansmen attack Rhoda Ann Childs Police kill 3 and Congressman supremacist candidates. were killed. Joe Cody OCTOBER 10, White mobs in Philadelphia murder Octavius injure at least 20 Abram Colby (Georgia) Six Black men SEPTEMBER lynched 1871 Catto, Isaac Chase, and Jacob Gordon for (Savannah, GA) Retaliation against Daniel Blue murdered 1866 in Warren OCTOBER 29, voting in the mayoral election NOVEMBER Armed white men People (Duplin County, NC) County, GA 1869 Daniel Blue testified against Klansmen attack Black people SUMMER White mob seizes 1868 in North Carolina. In retaliation, a mob of John Taliaferro 1868 having a picnic AUGUST 29, White men in Tennessee set Dan Calhoun on Klansmen murdered his pregnant wife and 1865 Tom Conyers and hangs him Mr. Taliaferro was a white man who particip- (Robinson Spring, FA) Guilford 1873 fire while he is sleeping near a railroad station MAY 1866 New Orleans their five children. White lynch Coleman lynched ated in mass violence against African Massacre on Canal Street SEPTEMBER mob in Americans in Noxubee County, Mississippi. White men 1869 in Alabama SUMMER Large crowd in Hancock County, Indiana Trenton, Tennessee Mass White mob Georgetown, CO OCTOBER 1868 He later testified before Congress about the in Unionville, SC 1870 gathers to witness public spectacle lynching Lynching kills at least 46 African hangs Edward 1875 violence, saying that the goal was to terrorize lynch Saxe Joiner Americans in Memphis of William Kemmer White men abducted 16 Black men from Bainbridge William Glasgow Klansmen in York County, Black people into fleeing the land they were MARCH Massacre Jack Dupree jail and riddled their bodies with bullets. Six 1867 and another African SC murder 11 and Large crowd in working and re-entering exploitative work 1865 MAY 1-3, 1866 Klansmen lynched (Monroe of the Black men were left on the side of American assault more than 600 White men in Hancock County, IN gathers conditions under white planters. A white man brutally whip County, MS) Union veteran African Americans Tennessee set to witness public spectacle the road, and the other ten were drowned assaults Andrew Flowers Fort Pillow New Orleans lynched 1870 3 white men 1871 Dan Calhoun on fire lynching of William Kemmer in a nearby river. The local newspaper John Henry Hill (Chattanooga, TN) Massacre Massacre SEPTEMBER 5, sexually assault while he is sleeping SUMMER 1875 defended the mob, saying that if allowed to SEPTEMBER 1870 1864 JULY 30, 1866 1868 Harriet Simril AUGUST 29, 1873 live, the Black men would have committed 1867 violence. 1870

Prince Edward County, Virginia H. of R. issues articles Emancipation 13th Civil Four Black women were singing in their 1860 1865 of impeachment against 1870 White mobs 1875 home when a white man demanded they Proclamation issued Amendment Rights Act Cyrus Guy Senator Hiram in Philadelphia Armed white men Amy Spain Pres. Andrew Johnson Rep. Robert Smalls stop singing. The women refused, and SEPTEMBER DECEMBER 1866 is hanged Revels takes office murder Octavius attack Black voters, is hanged FEBRUARY 1868 elected to the the man entered the house and severely 1862 1865 Ku Klux Klan 1869 Catto, Isaac Chase, murdering at least MARCH 10, 15th FEBRUARY 25, U.S. House of beat them. Civil War begins Confederate formed in Pulaski, TN Camilla, GA and Jacob Gordon 6 people (Eufaula, AL) 1865 Amendment 1870 Representatives to 1861 Army surrenders DECEMBER 24, massacre 14th Amendment FEBRUARY OCTOBER 10, represent Beaufort, SC NOVEMBER APRIL 9, 1865 1865 SEPTEMBER 1871 1874 JULY 1868 1870 1874 1868 RECONSTRUCTION’S END 21 Guided Reading Questions: Consider the following questions as you read the section Reconstruction's End. Come back to them after reading.

Many slavery abolitionists believed in ending enslavement but were RECONSTRUCTION’S not committed to racial equality. END · What consequences did this have for formerly enslaved people? · What should federal, state, and local governments have provided to Black Americans to end the racial hierarchy created by enslavement? What remedies would have repaired the harm white supremacy inflicted upon Black people?

The whole South—every state in the South—had “ got us into the hands of the very men that held us as slaves. Definitions of 1872 yielded 13 volumes of first-hand testimony —Henry Adams, formerly enslaved man in Louisiana After the Civil War, federal law prevented of brutal violence. This violence was often former Confederate troops and supporters targeted at Black political, social, and community leaders. A Black-led organization founded in 1863 from voting or holding public office. The to support African American participation in Amnesty Act removed those restrictions Alabama Election of 1874 politics, education, and social efforts. The for most former Confederates. The white men of the South need now have no Union League met secretly due to threats by Through violence, threats, terror, and fraud the Ku Klux Klan. 12 against Black voters, the white supremacist further fear that the [federal powers] will ever The number of large scale massacres in ticket won the election of 1874 in Alabama. “ Southern Redemption the South during the period of Southern This ended Reconstruction in the state, and again give themselves over to the vain imagination former Confederate leaders took power in A political movement to restore white Redemption from 1872 to 1876 that EJI the legislative and executive branches. of the political equality of man. supremacy as the foundation of life in has documented. the South. Many white businessmen and —John W. Burgess, a Southern Redeemer wealthy planters were advocates of this 11 movement. These intimidated Between 1885 and 1908, all 11 former On Easter Sunday 1873, Black people Black voters and disrupted elections; dis- Confederate states rewrote their state protested fraudulent election results. In rupted pro-civil rights political gatherings; constitutions to restrict Black voting response, 300 white people attacked and supported racial violence by groups rights. It was part of an effort to legalize them. At least 150 African Americans like the Ku Klux Klan. During this movement, white supremacy. As John B. Knox of were killed, including approximately 50 violence against Black people intensified. Alabama said, “if we would have white who surrendered, were taken prisoner, supremacy, we must establish it by law— and later executed by the white . Ku Klux Klan Act not by force or fraud.” A judge ruled that the federal law used This law allowed the federal government to to prosecute members of the mob was prosecute civil rights violations as federal unconstitutional because federal law crimes and allowed individuals who had Events could not protect Black people from the violence of private individuals. their rights violated to sue in federal court. 1871-1872 Congressional It was one of few meaningful forms of legal investigation protection for the formerly enslaved. The In a 10-month long investigation, Congress- Supreme Court later declared this law There was a dispute over which party’s men traveled through the South collecting unconstitutional. candidate won the necessary number information about racial violence. This 22 RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA 23

of Electoral College votes in the 1876 Confederate States of America. In an Confederate General James L. presidential election. A bipartisan earlier case, he had voted that Black Kemper TIMELINE | 1860–1877 commission decided that Rutherford people could not be American citizens. In 1874, General James L. Kemper B. Hayes would become president in became the . As Confederate Colonel James Ku Klux Klan Act passed to enforce Black rights; exchange for ending Reconstruction Governor, he declared that “the political 1871 Milton Smith later struck down by Supreme Court and returning Southern political power equality of the races is settled, and the to the Southern Redeemers. Because of the Amnesty Act, James social equality of the races is a settled Milton Smith was no longer prohibited impossibility.” 1872 Supreme court decides Slaughterhouse Cases, from holding public office. In 1872, he striking down federal laws to protect Black people People became the and rolled back the progress that Black Amnesty Act allows former Confederates to Georgians had won under Reconstruction 1872 A former Supreme Court Justice who vote and hold political office retired from the Court to help run the administrations.

APRIL 13, White mob in Louisiana murders at least 1873 150 African Americans in Colfax Massacre

JANUARY Reconstruction ends with the legal and Slaughterhouse Cases 1877 military abandonment of African Americans in the South In 1872, the United State Supreme Court ruled on a series of cases about the 14th Amendment. These cases were brought by Redeemers who wanted to limit federal protections for Black people. Former Supreme Court Justice John Ku Klux Klan Act passed to enforce Black rights; Archibald Campbell represented the Redeemers. In its decision, the Court held later struck down by White mob in Louisiana that the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship, civil rights, and due Supreme Court murders at least process, only applied to a short list of rights. Because that list did not include 1871 White men in 150 African Americans many of the rights being denied to Black people in the South, this decision Supreme Court in Colfax Massacre White mobs in Lewisburg, TN violently 200 white men decides Slaughterhouse APRIL 13, struck down federal laws designed to protect the formerly enslaved. The Abbeville attack terrorize local White men lynch in New York City lynch Cases, striking down 1873 Ku Klux Klan Act was one of these laws. This was the 13th Court decision in and injure Black community Over 200 Black state legislator a Black teenager federal laws to protect African Americans JANUARY 1868 massacred in Robert Burke seven years that eliminated federal protections for Black people. named John Taylor Opelousas, LA to Black people 1868 AUGUST 1870 suppress Black voters 1872 Reconstruction 1866 8 white men ends with the legal sexually assault FALL 1868 Amnesty Act allows United States v. Cruikshank Klansmen attack and military Rhoda Ann Childs Police kill 3 and Congressman former Confederates Joe Cody abandonment of SEPTEMBER injure at least 20 Abram Colby (Georgia) to vote and hold In 1870 and 1871, Congress passed a series of to respond to the Six Black men lynched African Americans 1866 (Savannah, GA) political office racial terror faced by Black people. White Southerners challenged these laws murdered in Warren OCTOBER 29, in the South NOVEMBER Armed white men (Duplin County, NC) County, GA 1869 1872 as unconstitutional. They wanted courts to rule that the 14th Amendment only attack Black people JANUARY 1877 SUMMER White mob seizes 1868 1868 having a picnic protected people from state action and that it could not be used to address the 1865 Tom Conyers and hangs him (Robinson Spring, FA) Guilford New Orleans violent behavior of private persons. On March 27, 1876, the United States Supreme MAY 1866 White lynch Coleman lynched Massacre on Canal Street SEPTEMBER Klansmen in Court agreed with them, severely limiting the power of the 14th Amendment. mob in 1869 in Alabama White men White mob York County, SC In doing so, the Court upheld a lower court decision that the white mob who Georgetown, CO OCTOBER 1868 1870 in Unionville, SC kills at least 46 African murder 11 and assault hangs Edward Large crowd in murdered 150 Black people in the Colfax Massacre could not be prosecuted lynch Saxe Joiner Americans in Memphis more than 600 Bainbridge William Glasgow Hancock County, IN gathers MARCH Massacre Jack Dupree African Americans under federal law. After this ruling, the Department of Justice dropped 179 1867 and another African to witness public spectacle 1865 Klansmen lynched (Monroe 1871 White men in prosecutions of violence against African Americans in Mississippi alone. MAY 1-3, 1866 American lynching of William Kemmer A white man brutally whip County, MS) Tennessee set Union veteran assaults Andrew Flowers 3 white men Dan Calhoun on fire SUMMER 1875 Fort Pillow New Orleans lynched 1870 John Henry Hill (Chattanooga, TN) sexually assault while he is sleeping Massacre Massacre SEPTEMBER 5, SEPTEMBER 1870 Harriet Simril AUGUST 29, 1864 JULY 30, 1866 1868 1867 1870 1873

H. of R. issues articles Emancipation 13th Civil 1860 1865 of impeachment against 1870 White mobs 1875 Proclamation issued Amendment Rights Act Cyrus Guy Senator Hiram in Philadelphia Armed white men Amy Spain Pres. Andrew Johnson Rep. Robert Smalls SEPTEMBER DECEMBER 1866 is hanged Revels takes office murder Octavius attack Black voters, is hanged FEBRUARY 1868 elected to the 1862 1865 Ku Klux Klan 1869 Catto, Isaac Chase, murdering at least MARCH 10, 15th FEBRUARY 25, U.S. House of Civil War begins Confederate formed in Pulaski, TN Camilla, GA and Jacob Gordon 6 people (Eufaula, AL) 1865 Amendment 1870 Representatives to 1861 Army surrenders DECEMBER 24, massacre 14th Amendment FEBRUARY OCTOBER 10, represent Beaufort, SC NOVEMBER APRIL 9, 1865 1865 SEPTEMBER 1871 1874 JULY 1868 1870 1874 1868 25 Guided Reading Questions: Consider the following questions as you read the section A Truth That Needs Telling. Come back to them after reading.

· How would an accurate public memory of domestic terrorism A TRUTH THAT against Black people during and after Reconstruction better equip NEEDS TELLING us to respond to racial injustice today? · How do false narratives of Black criminality that were created during Reconstruction continue on today through policing and mass incarceration?

The deadly attacks Black communities endured in the first years of freedom—and the institutions that tolerated that violence—laid a foundation for to become a federal crime because “we do and local community leaders, this marker was Definitions not want a return of the shackles of Reconstr- the first public funded historical commemora- the era of racial terror lynching that followed and Narrative war uction days upon the backs of our people.” tion of the massacre. Its unveiling marked the only public space dedicated to memorializing the segregation and inequality that endure still. Narrative war refers to the dominant public Memphis Massacre Historical victims of racial violence in a city with multiple memory of the Civil War and the Reconstr- Marker Confederate monuments and a park named uction period that followed. Monuments to for the founder of the Ku Klux Klan. Confederate leaders, literature about the Erected in 2016 by the “Lost Cause,” and social organizations like the United Daughters of the Confederacy When we listen to the voices of the Black men try to invent historical fact by romanticizing and glorifying enslavement and those who and women who witnessed the hope, promise, and fought to defend white supremacy. Many Eufaula, Alabama monuments to the Confederacy were terrifying danger of the era, and when we probe The 1874 massacre in Eufaula exemplifies violent voter suppression of Black voters. erected in defiant response to the civil the haunting descriptions of the brutality that rights movement of the mid-20th century. Emancipation and ratification of the 15th Amendment gave Black men the electoral killed so many, we cannot deny the tragedy of the power to end white supremacist rule in majority-Black Eufaula, Alabama. In Confederate Monument in response, the white community used terror, violence, and intimidation to suppress post-Civil War era’s missed opportunity to Tuscumbia, Alabama the Black vote during the election of 1874. On Election Day, federal troops refused to remake our nation’s racial order. This monument honoring Confederate soldiers was erected in 1911 and is protect Black voters because their captain claimed doing so would violate his orders. inscribed with the words: “God of our Early in the afternoon, a mob of white men began firing at random into the crowd fathers, help us to preserve for our children of Black voters. At least six Black people were killed, 80 injured, and an estimated the priceless treasure of the true story of 500 forced to flee without voting. The son of the City Court Judge who Black voters the Confederate soldier.” It is an example of hoped to re-elect was also murdered that day. 1200 Black voters cast ballots that day; efforts to silence the Black experience and to erase the denial of Black humanity that in the next election two years later, only 10 Black men cast ballots. The white press defined the South before the Civil War. praised the massacre, and in 1979 a historical marker was erected celebrating the massacre as the end of Reconstruction in Barbour County. Rejection of Anti-lynching Bill Despite repeated attempts to pass a federal None of the white men who participated in the 1874 massacre were held accountable, anti-lynching bill during the era of racial terror, despite witnesses who testified to their participation. One witness, a Black man named the bill never passed. In opposition to the proposal in 1938, Florida Governor Fred P. Hilliard Miles, was imprisoned for perjury after identifying members of the mob. One Cone explained that he did not want lynching of the men he identified, Comer, later became governor of Alabama. 122 Commerce Street Montgomery, Alabama 36104 334.269.1803 eji.org

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